Singer James Blunt has been told off by bosses of the BBC's Celebrity Traitors after appearing to break one of the broadcaster's most important commercial rules by plugging a tailor in a promotional post for the show.
Blunt, 52, shared a promotional photograph from the programme on his personal X account, captioning it with a Bond-style quip about his own name. The photograph showed him in a tweed suit costing £1,695 that he wore for the opening episode of the second series, and the post included a link to the account of Barrington Ayre, the Cotswolds-based tailor that supplied the suit. The image also carried watermarks for the BBC and Celebrity Traitors.
The BBC's editorial guidelines prohibit stars from exploiting BBC programmes or brands in advertising or promotions, and the corporation reportedly moved quickly once the post came to its attention. The Mail on Sunday is said to have flagged the post to the broadcaster. A BBC insider told the paper that as soon as executives were alerted, they spoke to all parties and the post was removed from X.
The BBC and Studio Lambert, the production company behind the show, are believed to have been unaware of the post until the newspaper intervened. The incident is understood to have caused irritation among executives, particularly given the scale of the show's success.
The second series of The Celebrity Traitors launched on BBC One with a record-breaking average of 8.9 million viewers, peaking at 9.1 million, making it one of the most-watched entertainment launches in recent memory. Ratings were expected to climb further after the second episode, in which actor Richard E Grant committed what viewers described as an epic gaffe by revealing he was a Traitor after just thirty minutes.
A BBC insider said executives were thrilled by the figures, which exceeded expectations at a time when fewer viewers tune in for live television, calling it evidence of a continuing appetite for shared viewing experiences. The singer's promotional misstep is unlikely to dent that success, but it has given the corporation a minor headache.
Blunt has not publicly commented on the episode. The singer, famous for hits including You're Beautiful, has a reputation for self-deprecating humour on social media and is one of the more prominent contestants on a cast that has drawn significant attention. Whether the BBC will impose any further consequences beyond the post's removal remains unclear, but the broadcaster is known to take its commercial impartiality rules seriously.